EASY Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

I love cupcakes. And easy. I also dig when people compliment my cooking and/or baking. But I’m not a very good baker.

So fueled my quest to find an easy, semi-homemade cupcake! And here it is. It’s almost embarrassing how short the ingredients list is.

1 Box Funetti Cake

1 cup of thawed frozen raspberries

1 package of 2 quart Lemonade Mix

1 container vanilla icing

Make cake as directed on box, using half the listed water. (If the measurement says 1 cup water, use 1/2 cup. Halving is easy and that’s why I chose to do half. I’m just lucky it worked perfectly.) Then put in about 2/3 the lemonade mix and then the raspberries. Stir it up, make it up according to the box. Please note: no matter what color cake mix you use it’s going to be a purpley pink color, so don’t freak out; embrace it. Skip the food coloring.

Bake according to the box directions and expect to keep them in for a few minutes longer. You’re going to want to make sure they’re done done. (The raspberries make the texture a bit weird if it’s not.) They’ll be a little browned on top. When done they will look like this:

Icing: Add about 1/2 tsp of lemonade mix to the icing and some food coloring if you really want. Ice cupcakes. Voila!

If you want to get really fancy, put a fresh raspberry or a thin lemon slice on top. Or alternate them! You can totally sell this like they’re not just box cake.

NOT Easy Icing Alternative

So this is not easy. I want to make sure that you know this going in. It’s not like, super hard, but it is time consuming, so just beware.

First, combine the remaining raspberries and the remaining 1/3 of the lemonade packet into a sauce pan and JUST bring to a slow boil. Like, as soon as you see a couple bubbles pop up, remove it from the heat. Then use your mixer and make sure all the big chunks are gone. It will look like this:

In a separate Bowl add 2/3 cup softened butter and whip it. Add the raspberries and mix them. Next start adding powdered sugar until it’s the right consistency. You’ll probably add about 3-4 cups. I just add a heaping tablespoon at a time and end up with like 16 spoonfuls this time. It ended up looking like this:

Pop that icing, whichever you chose, on the cupcakes and that’s it. Get ready to fake being a professional baker.